FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Kalikan]

Gawd-DAMN, this felt amazing! As a pretty standard SHMUP, it's not exactly unique or envelope-pushing with some wacky mechanics like Ikaruga's polarity switching, but this just not only felt so smooth and polished, but had some solid combat design as well, that I was totally down for it! Cool bosses with incredible and intricate patterns to weave through, cool levels with all sorts of waves and formations that never make things feel boring, simple but strategic combat due to switching between the fast and slow firing moves, nice variety in selectable player characters with their unique abilities, juicy feedback and explosions and points galore, and the cherry on top was that sick slowdown that happens when there's just so much happening on screen: I love it!

That's not to say it wasn't without some minor complaints:

I was a bit annoyed that, if you want to continuously fire the spread bullets, you have to mash the button, as holding down the button, which would usually do auto-fire, is instead reserved for the secondary special fire. Don't get me wrong, I kind of like the simplicity of the design, but my old man hands just really can't handle mashing, so it was a pain that it was the only option.

It would be nice if the game had a little bit of a tutorial to it, especially if it was one of those authentic arcade-esque tutorials, but I understand that, since it's done in Pico-8, it might have very limited space to work with.

I found it annoying that enemies were not consistent with their abilities. For example, when you first meet the tiny mook ships, they fire orange bullets. Later on, however, they come in from the side and fire at you with tiny red bullets! This felt incredibly unfair and against the rules: if you want an enemy that fires tiny red bullets, you need to have it be a different enemy altogether. How is a player supposed to be able to scan the battlefield and plan their moves and priorities if enemies are so inconsistent in their behavior?

And of course my biggest complaint...is that there's only two levels! C'mon, I want more! MORE!

[GROBLIN SURVIVORS]

Jeez, I hate to say it, but I had an incredibly rough time with this game. Practically my entire playtime just felt like an absolute mess where I went from utter confusion to boring dissatisfaction. I'd like to think this has potential but it's quite difficult to see it in its current state.

As said, the initial impression was spent in confusion trying to learn the rules of the game and what the heck is going on. So many questions kept being asked:

Why is the only menu that is labeled the upgrade and exit: what do the other menu options do and why aren't they labeled? What is this tutorial trying to teach me? I like that it keeps things simple, but this is a case of being TOO simple! What is this menu that just popped up with a ballista button: is this a level up screen or something? Why do I keep getting goddamn interrupted every two seconds with this selection: I haven't even filled up the scrap gauge yet? Why when I chose a tower that time it wiped the entire map of enemies: you're not even gonna let me get the satisfaction of killing them myself? What's the damn point then? Why does only the starter ballista have this auto-target circle while the other similar ones don't? Am I even killing anything: it all just feels like a disconnected chaotic mess? Wait, why did the game just end with a goblin laughing: did I win? Did I lose? I don't think I got hit, so what happened?

And so on and so forth.

There's almost so much to point out that could be improved that it's difficult to decide what to say or where to start, but I'll try to limit it to a few key points for now:

1) Put more labeling and instructions and tooltips around to help guide players. Don't overdo it with walls of text or anything like that: less is more, but you want more than none, which is all you have currently. For example, put labels over the modes in the main menu, have the level up/upgrade screen be labeled at the top and put some instructions like 'pick a tower to add to your inventory'.

2) Have the level up/upgrade screen grey out the rest of the screen to make it more indicative that it has paused gameplay and is awaiting your selection. Also, have it appear with a bit more fanfare, like some sparkles or a literal fanfare sound effect, to make it feel like a nice event and separate the moment from regular gameplay.

3) Have more satisfying feedback for your towers damaging enemies: you know, sound effects and blood splats and stuff like that. In general the gameplay just felt so weird, like I wasn't feeling the satisfaction you're supposed to get from blasting enemies yourself. It's partly because its the towers killing them, but I think it's also because you can barely see your own bullets or hear/feel them hitting enemies, making it all feel so disconnected. I understand you're trying to make the screen less cluttered by muting your own bullets, but perhaps you could approach it differently, such as with colors/outlines to make things pop, especially since the game overall has a very dark palette.

4) Find a better way to introduce the whole aspect of only being able to aim certain towers in certain directions: the arrows do a pretty good job but it'd be nice if it could go a step further. It'd also be nice if this information was available in the tooltips in the level up/upgrade screen.

While I did have a really bad time, I don't think the concept is without merit: the twist of having to construct towers with certain powers and limitations could be cool as long as the game continues to get built up, I believe, so if you do continue, I'd like to see it in its final state.

FishDev responds:

Thanks for the feedback! I wasn't able to implement it all, but I've done some work and will be uploading a new build soon. From your feedback, I immediately added text to the menu options -- you were definitely right. More feedback on hitting was actually something I'd already been working on, more specifically damage text, though I like your ideas on adding things like bloodsplats and I'll see what I can do (without making the game run even worse on html lol).

As for the tutorial, I'm well aware it's bad and I'm actually working on improving it right now, though I don't think it'll be done for a little bit. I've never done an actual tutorial before so I wanna make sure it's actually, y'know. Good, lol. (EDIT: Done! The tutorial should be up-to-par, it still isn't very great but it should actually succeed at teaching players the ropes)

The fanfare's a good idea, in hindsight that's probably something I should have added even before release.

Your feedback was INCREDIBLY insightful, thank you so much!! Would it be alright if you added me on Discord so I could refer to you for future playtesting? If so, my Discord is @fartfish

[Tangled Slug]

Wow, found myself really getting addicted to this puzzler! The whole element of not being able to cross over yourself, except where you've gone pink, which can both be where you've collected a mushroom at in the past or where a mushroom has just grown, leads to some really mindbending puzzles! Definitely found the concept quite memorable and fun to reprogram my brain to get used to, and kudos to designing the levels and presentation well enough to teach this concept intuitively.

I will admit that some of the puzzles were a bit annoying as it felt like it was dependent on a lot of guesswork and assumptions to determine the order in which the mushrooms would bloom. As such, sometimes it felt more like I was not getting good at the puzzles themselves, but more reading the mind of the designer and trying to get in front of whatever trick they were going to pull.

All of this made it feel like you could only really solve the puzzle through trial-and-error, whereas if the game would do something like plainly number the mushrooms in the order of their blooming, you could potentially plan it out and execute on a first try, making it feel more fair. Luckily the ease of undoing, coupled with the bite-size nature of the puzzles and the badge/par system, made such redos feel alright and not much of an issue at all that hurt the game for me.

I'm not sure if I love the game so much to get myself through all of the levels it set up (especially since it doesn't seem to introduce any new mechanics or twists to change things up significantly, at least at a noticeable pace), but I still had a good time while it lasted!

[Hyperlight Survivor]

Despite its rather simple graphical fidelity and basic automated gameplay, this game does a lot to make everything feel exciting with tons of juice and nice touches! Alongside that, the game also did a decent job at having various enemy types each with their own AI patterns (instead of the usual boring survivors-style dummies that just chase you), lots of weapon upgrades, some events that pop up, and different arenas which make you improvise how best to survive. I think there's certainly a lot of potential here and overall the game feels fun.

However, one of my biggest issues with the game was its pacing. It just felt like it was really repetitive and took way too long to get to a decent level of difficulty to make me engaged. On my first playthrough, when it came to around 100 kills and I was still fighting the same boring mooks, I was seriously considering quitting and not looking back. Eventually yes, it does introduce more enemy types and events to makes things more exciting, but they felt like they were spaced out too far and kept recycling before moving on.

It didn't help either that the game felt a bit directionless and pointless. Yes, there is a ranking system and I'm getting points and such, but it just felt like it was doing the same ol' same ol' and didn't really entice me to play again, especially considering I've have to go through that slow start again. I feel like if it had more unique events like the bomb event happen more frequently, and perhaps if it forced you to go to new arenas on a timer instead of on pickup and they got progressively more intense instead of random, and if you faced mini or final bosses and they unlocked higher difficulty modes or checkpoints or whatever, I'd be more inclined to play since it would feel like I can gauge my progression and it would keep things spicy.

There were also some other slight annoyances like how the arenas just feel so bloody claustrophobic and the enemies get so dense that it just feels silly and doesn't allow for much movement or space for player expression. Also the Ultra takes so long to charge up that it makes me want to not use it, and considering how powerful it is, I'm surprised it doesn't treat it with more reverence like having a special gauge that goes all rainbowy when its fully charged or something: having it just be some boring numbers in the corner makes me forget I even have it.

In addition to all the gameplay-related stuff above, I did find it odd that, despite the game being played with the keyboard, the menu navigation is done with the mouse, which isn't use in game. I would expect to be able to do things like hit enter to start the game and use the arrow keys to select ships: feels weird to be forced to use a whole other control scheme and then switch back when the game starts.

I do think the game is pretty solidly put-together and juicy and has good potential, but it's rough because, well, you can't escape the fact that it is inevitably going against so many other Survivors games on the market like Holocure and Halls of Torment and even Picayune Dreams and so on, and this, while nice, just doesn't quite have the amount of variety in its content, addictive sense of progression, or any other special selling point like a story or whatever that those games have to set it apart. Still had a good time with it while it lasted, but I just can't see me sticking with it without a more powerful hook.

WittGames responds:

Hello! Thank you very much for the exhaustive review. I'm going to release very soon the last update for the web version of the game before the final release on Steam. The new update will include a new type of "starter" enemy to make the start of each run less tedious. It will also include a new Event and an entire Card System to upgrade power-ups and weapons. Also, the full version will have more Events, an Upgrade System for spaceships and much more to give the player a better sense of progression. However, thank you so much again for the feedback!

[Pinokyo is depressed]

Wow, quite the interesting puzzle game you got here: the usage of Pinokyo's extending nose was rather inventive and I enjoyed seeing the twists and turns it added as the game progressed! Puzzles were really well-designed and it felt like they intuitively tutorialized all of the tips you needed to learn well. Apart from that, the game was also decently juicy and smooth-feeling, and had some nice humor with all the quips that came up and the amusing ending.

While I enjoyed my time overall, I was a bit conflicted about the mechanic where you can shorten Pinokyo's nose by snapping it during a turn.

Part of me likes the mechanic in theory since it not only adds another layer to the puzzles to think about, but it also provides the player a bit of wiggle-room where they can recover from a slight error, similar to platformers which let you get a bit more distance or change your direction slightly during a jump by punching or kicking in mid-air.

However, whenever I needed to shorten my nose, it kinda felt like cheating, like I shouldn't be doing it. I think it was due to the fact that a) the initial puzzles and theme set a precedent that you gotta live with your lengthens and b) getting the nose to snap to a shorter length felt really fiddly and hard to pull off: I'd just mash the jump and turn keys and eventually it would happen. It just felt awkward.

Ideally, I think the puzzles should be built around not being able to shorten your nose: lengthening the nose should be a careful consideration as the player needs to decide when to lengthen it and how long to make it without getting stuck, planning their whole trip out. It makes sense since the puzzle rooms are so short and the nose is reset every room: getting stuck with a too long nose would only ever put you back a few seconds. But I could be wishing for something that I'd regret getting, perhaps, haha! Well, it's food for thought!

A short and sweet adventure that, while I enjoyed it, would've loved to see even more twists and mechanics get introduced!

[EGG DROP ONLINE]

Hey, this is a pretty cute little game: it's like a bullet-hell chicken version of Tetris 99!

I wasn't able to test out the online portion due to not getting any connections unfortunately, but I was very happy to see that the game was completely enjoyable solo with bots, so thanks muchly for taking the effort to include that! Felt like the game was well-crafted overall and very intuitive, thanks to the short and sweet tutorial and helpful in-gameplay tips like popups that explain powerups and the targetter at the bottom of the screen.

I liked the strategy and progression behind the game where, as a newbie, you can just aim eggs using the target at the bottom of the screen, but if you are good enough, you can aim using the side screen which provides more information at the risk of splitting your attention (for example, looking at the side screen could show up where your opponents powerups are and you can fire at those to trap them). Speaking of powerups, the large variety added a lot of fun to the game as well.

All in all feels like a solid concept with a solid execution. I'm not much of a multiplayer guy but I felt like this hit that sweet spot of a simple-to-grasp-but-hard-to-master party game and left me with a good impression. I'm not sure about the long-term viability of something like this as it might need more game modes and it could maybe stand to be a bit more juicy and satisfying with its feedback as some events like KOing players felt like they happened without me even noticing, but it was nice.

[Paraiso]

Wow, what a wonderful adventure you got here! Felt like this was very well-constructed and was firing on all cylinders: great simple premise, wonderfully animated and comical cutscenes, juicy graphics and effects, smooth and interesting control setup that allows for strategic use of two differently powered jumps, tons of challenging obstacles to overcome along with tons of secrets to uncover for the attentive player, some very elaborate and exciting bosses/setpieces, a large variety of mechanics that kept getting introduced to keep things fresh, and so on and so forth! I couldn't help but get addicted and play this all the way to the end in one sitting (and thank god I did because I would've been real annoyed to realize it doesn't save your progress!)

In terms of feedback for improvement, in addition to the note that there really should be a save/continue feature as mentioned above (I know it's short but it's not that short), there were some instances of strange sound issues: whenever you'd go into water, the music would suddenly only come out of the right side from then on with sound coming only out of the left, even after leaving the water, and it will only reset to normal when a new track comes on eventually.

Also, as much as I did enjoy the adventure, it did feel oddly paced at times: the battle with Bowser and the chase scene feels incredibly climatic despite being so early on, only for the game to continue on afterwards with normal puzzles, until another less climatic Pacman boss fight, then a sudden downer bad ending. I felt like the game could've been twice as long to give some new mechanics like the fans and such more time to breathe as they go by so fast, but perhaps it is best to keep it short and sweet. Well, it was sweet, but again, the downer bad ending was quite a sour note that did leave me a bit let-down.

...is what I would say, if I didn't end up playing it again and discovering that secret challenge path if you avoid collecting the goblet in the first place. What an awesome easter egg! I almost gave up due to annoyance from having my inputs screwed up by the freeze from the roars which felt very unfair, but I persisted and got the good ending in the end! Always love a challenge like that, just like how I loved all the challenge rooms for the secret treasures as well!

Again, great work on this: I had a blast and would've loved if there was even more to this game, but it is very good already, and I will just await whatever next big entry from you in the future!

["Loss" Collab!]

Heh, interesting little art collab! Very amusing to see so many different takes on Loss: had a lot of fun going through and seeing how closely or how loosely the artists stuck with the theme.

While it's all very nice, I do wish the collab presentation was a bit more unique and had a bit more effort put into it, as what we have here is what I'd consider the boring 'default' slideshow presentation: considering it's based off of a webcomic, it'd be nice if the presentation was done in a more creative comic-esque format, at the very least. I'm sure you guys could think up something way more creative than that, and it'd be worth the effort as I think it would get a lot more people engaged and sticking around to see all the pieces.

Moving on from that, I do wish this gallery had a bit more features. For one, it'd be great to have some sort of zoom function as a lot of the pieces are very tiny, which makes it difficult to see some of the more intricate details. Also, I'd love it if you could click on a user's name to go to their page, as well as being able to click on the art piece to see it's page on Newgrounds: by doing this and making it so easy, more people would potentially follow or engage with artists they like, which I think should be the primary goal for these collabs in the first place.

Anyway, putting all that aside, your hearts in the right place, and it's always wonderful to see collabs like this!

B^U

RustiTank responds:

i aint reading allat

[Mine Sweeper]

I mean, it's cute, but it's not really a game, more a one-off joke that you have a small chuckle at before moving on, and therefore I don't think it works well when put standalone like this.

Encountering it within Binbows makes sense as it becomes a fun easter egg you found in your search, but when standalone like this, it makes me expect a lot more from it, like more levels and obstacles, and therefore I feel let-down when it's just a single level and the sweeping feels so glitchy and awkward.

Don't get me wrong, while the joke would work just based on the title and picture alone with no gameplay, it is nice that it goes the extra step forward in selling the joke by being a fully-functional game. Credit where its due, and all that.

I'm probably overthinking this and going too deep into context and all that jazz. It's perfectly fine to have this preserved standalone as it was from Binbows. Hopefully you can just take it as a compliment that it got my hopes up and made me want more from it!

[Half Hour Hexagon]

Not too shabby of a survivors game! While the minimalistic presentation might seem low-effort on first glance, I think there is actually a lot of charm, style and juice put into so many facets of this that elevates it considerably and makes it feel so lively and smooth! Definitely makes a solid first impression that got me excited to see how the gameplay evolves.

Having said all that though, while it did have a strong first impression, it didn't take too long for me to get quite bored and feel like switching off:

*So much of the gameplay was just being chased by this braindead spongey cloud of enemies that can be easily avoided by running circles around it: never feels like I'm making any sort of progress as whenever I kill something, more enemies get added to the cloud to replace them.

*There were technically a lot of different enemy types, sure, but they were all the practically the same with no different AI patterns to make you strategize or think: any statistical differences they have become moot as they all just become one with the cloud.

*Upgrades/levels came very slowly and were terribly unexciting due to most of the upgrades being boring passive statistical upgrades like bullet speed or movement speed. Eventually I get some interesting stuff like fire bullets or ice shield, but they were few and far between: by the time they showed up I was already ready to quit from boredom, and afterwards it was back to those boring passives being the only options available.

*Similar to upgrades, I was really hoping for more interesting events to happen, like bosses or new different enemy types or sudden bullet barrages to dodge and so on. The game did eventually have a cage event which was quite exciting, but again, it was so little, took so long to happen and only lasted a bit before the game devolved once again into just circling around and plinking away at the cloud.

*The final nail in the coffin was me playing for around 15 mins and only getting $86, which was not even half the amount needed to get a single permanent upgrade: talk about a motivation killer! Usually games make getting the first upgrade very easy so you can get a taste of the process. The amount of grind that you're asking for is crazy to me, especially considering how repetitive and simple the gameplay is. The upgrades didn't seem very interesting either: just more passive number tweaks instead of fun gameplay additions like new abilities.

I don't necessarily think this is bad, but it's just very basic nowadays, like a prototype or a student project. This might've been cool back in the day, but with other free survivors games like Holocure raising the bar, this unfortunately falls short. Still, if I were to view it in a vacuum, I do think it shows a lot of promise and good craftsmanship/presentation: just needs more oomph.